Veteran referee and judge Ian John-Lewis says the British Boxing Board of Control has made a big mistake in deciding to single him out for his controversial scoring of the Josh Taylor vs. Jack Catterall undisputed 140-pound bout last year.
The 61-year-old John-Lewis was one of three judges involved in last year’s infamous Taylor-Catterall title bout. Taylor’s split decision win sparked controversy, with many fans and observers in agreement that it was one of the worst decisions in recent memory in British boxing.
Much of the anger from the boxing world was directed at the two judges that had Taylor winning: John-Lewis and Victor Loughlin. But John-Lewis’ scorecard suffered the brunt of the outrage, as his scorecard (114-111) had Taylor by the widest margin. (Loughlin had it 113-112 for Taylor, while the third judge, Howard Foster, favored Catterall by 113-112.)
After a hearing with the Board, John-Lewis, a former fighter, was demoted from his perch in the A Star class of referees to A class.
It was reported earlier this year that John-Lewis then sued the Board for treating him like a ‘scapegoat.’
John-Lewis recently spoke out about his ongoing litigation with the governing body and suggested that the Board was not acting out of due diligence but had simply caved into “social media pressure.”
“I was scapegoated, no doubt about that,” John-Lewis told Boxing News. “I can’t believe the Board bowed under social media pressure. But they’ve picked on the wrong guy.”
“I’m not worried, because the truth will come out,” he continued. “I’m looking forward to the hearing – not to slag people off, but to get the facts across and have people think of things a bit differently.”
John-Lewis said he felt like he had his hands tied after the Taylor-Catterall fight because he was not allowed to freely justify what went into his scorecard. Referees are generally not allowed to speak to the press.
“A lot of officials do feel aggrieved when they can’t explain a decision,” John-Lewis said. “We do all moan about that. We can understand where they [the Board] are coming from – they don’t want us to dig a bigger hole for ourselves, or let reporters put words in our mouths – but we’re not stupid, and we know it looks bad, that not talking to the press looks like there’s something to hide.”
The stink of the Taylor-Catterall fight led both fighters to try and pursue a rematch. But after nearly a year of multiple postponements, Taylor finally went his seperate way. The Scotsman is projected to defend his lone WBO 140-pound title against former lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez in New York City in June.
Catterall recently signed a promotional deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. Catterall was previously linked with Boxxer.